It was January 25 in 2024 when Deb Fung and Adrian Chen’s world turned upside.What should have been a memorable family trip instead turned into the worst time of their lives when they lost their 10-year-old daughter, Tegan Ariel Chen, the youngest of their three children. The Sydney-based family were exploring parts of New Zealand’s south island when Tegan slipped and fell into a flowing river, while on a trail walk in Milford Sound.The family had stopped at a few waterfall spots on the way to Fiordland National Park to take photos and enjoy the scenery before embarking on the simple walk.They got to the walking trail about 11.30am and split into two groups - Deb was with the kids, while Adrian and his sister were slightly behind escorting their elderly parents.The pair then switched, and while Deb was walking her in-laws to the others, her eldest son Zac, now 16, ran towards them yelling, “she’s gone in”.An emotional Deb recalled the moment tragedy struck.“They’d seen a spot in between two railings that was open to the water and they were collecting water from the side - what we’d done earlier in the day (at beautiful rivers along the highway),” Deb told news.com.au.“It looked very flat - then all of a sudden as they were all standing at the water’s edge she toppled over and went in.”Adrian’s last words to his daughter were to try to “grab onto a tree”, but she tragically could not be saved. In the wake of her death, the family were completely devastated. However, they revealed how during the trauma an unexpected gesture from a friend helped pull them from a “deep black hole” of grief. The friend didn’t just offer condolences; he offered a tree. A gesture that would go on to help them create Pipers Ridge Living Legacy Forest - a memorial forest located in the Blue Mountains that transforms the darkness of loss into hope, healing and light.The patented Living Legacy process transforms cremated ashes into life-giving nutrients. As the couple explain, the treatment neutralises the high pH and salt levels that would otherwise harm plant life, creating a nourishing foundation that allows the tree to absorb and embody your loved one’s presence.“Adrian was involved with Living Legacy a few years prior and got to know Warren and Luke, the founding brothers of the sanctuary in Melbourne,” Deb explained. When Tegan passed, Deb got a call from Warren saying: “We’d like to plant a tree for Tegan”. “It just made sense at a time when nothing was making sense,” a heartbroken Deb said. “There was so much logistics in that initial outset, from being overseas, talking to coroners and all the terrible stuff that you have to deal with. “So when he called and thought of a tree for her, suddenly it all came full centre. It’s what birthed Pipers Ridge.”The 14-hectare sanctuary for ‘life after life’ is having a soft launch next month while the council finalises the paperwork. For Deb, the project is deeply visceral. She is on-site twice a week, personally tending to the resilient Wollemi pines (aka ‘dinosaur tree’) as they take root. She said that in the quiet of the forest, watching the new growth emerge despite the elements, she can feel Tegan’s presence there. It has transformed her grief from a private pain into a tangible connection that she now wants to share with other families.She said it’s a space designed for families to remain ‘open and raw’, where they can eventually visit to do yoga, experience sound healing and build new memories in the presence of their loved ones. Divided by a river, the land features a native conservation forest on one side and botanical gardens on the other. “On July 25 last year, exactly 18-month’s since Tegan’s crossing, we settled on this sacred land in Pipers Ridge,” Deb said.With its sprawling views and flowing creeks, Pipers Ridge Living Legacy Forest is the first Living Legacy site in New South Wales.“Tegan’s love for life is the heartbeat of this sanctuary,” Deb said.She described her “beautiful” daughter as a “beam of light” that oozed tenacity.“Tegan was this tenacious girl. We called her Tegan ‘Ariel’ Chen. Ariel means lioness - that’s exactly what she was and who she is.”And as she puts it, “out of tradgedy, a sanctuary of hope” was born.